Wednesday, June 03, 2015

And, unsurprisingly, he likes what he sees. He just thinks they take their "noble impulses" a little too far:

Every generation has an opportunity to change the world. Right now, college campuses around the country are home to a moral movement that seeks to reverse centuries of historic wrongs.

This movement is led by students forced to live with the legacy of sexism, with the threat, and sometimes the experience, of sexual assault. It is led by students whose lives have been marred by racism and bigotry. It is led by people who want to secure equal rights for gays, lesbians and other historically marginalized groups.

These students are driven by noble impulses to do justice and identify oppression. They want to not only crack down on exploitation and discrimination, but also eradicate the cultural environment that tolerates these things. They want to police social norms so that hurtful comments are no longer tolerated and so that real bigotry is given no tacit support. Of course, at some level, they are right. Callous statements in the mainstream can lead to hostile behavior on the edge. That’s why we don’t tolerate Holocaust denial....

The problem is that the campus activists have moral fervor, but don’t always have settled philosophies to restrain the fervor of their emotions. Settled philosophies are meant to (but obviously don’t always) instill a limiting sense of humility, a deference to the complexity and multifaceted nature of reality. But many of today’s activists are forced to rely on a relatively simple social theory.

According to this theory, the dividing lines between good and evil are starkly clear. The essential conflict is between the traumatized purity of the victim and the verbal violence of the oppressor. According to this theory, the ultimate source of authority is not some hard-to-understand truth. It is everybody’s personal feelings.

No. Their impulses are not noble. They are not right on any level. They have no right to police anything. Their eternal argumentum ad sensum is an intrinsically false and dangerous philosophy. They and their totalitarian ideology are what need to be eradicated.

SJW is solipsistic totalitarianism. SJW is the real bigotry of the mind. SJW delenda est.

I don't buy for a second millennials cooked SJW tripe up on their own. SJW is more baby boomer bullshit. The millenials may have fallen for it, but they don't own it. SJW is plain, ugly, old school, leftist totalitarianism.

I also find it highly amusing that the pretend real-politikers like Brooks are so disingenuously naive in these contexts.

He really believes that people have changed to the point where this group he calls "people who want to secure equal rights for gays, lesbians and other historically marginalized groups" just want the power to order the whole world according to their liking, for purely altruistic and noble reasons?

He really thinks it would be safe for anyone to actually give these "leaders" such power?

"I, too, am dubious. My opinion is that more millennials were naive and idealistic enough to buy the Baby Boomer nonsense that most of the more skeptical Generation Xers rejected."

It could be as simple as this. The crowd I hung out with in college in the mid- to late-1980s definitely leaned left. It was also a very diverse group ideologically. Leaned left, but was open enough that there were at least three openly evangelical Christian members. Other than one or two hard core activists no one cared about politics all that much.

College students I have been in touch with since then at the same school are MUCH more left-leaning and dogmatic. That kind of group of friends simply could not exist today.

Millenials are skilled in doublethink. Do you think the SJWs have a genuine and heartfelt love of diversity, feminism, etc.? If so, then they are naive. Or do you think they are just using these things to strike a pose of moral superiority and arbitrarily establish a group to be part of, and hate the other group? In that case, they have a different kind of skepticism, more akin to nihilism. It's emotional, rather than intellectual skepticism, a natural result of being raised by South Park and Family Guy.

SJWs main motivation is to seek absolution from their personal sins by postulating all of them non-sins. They trade their acceptance of another perons's sin with the other's acceptance of theirs. It's a win-win for both sides and therefore quite apealing.

Seeking forgiveness/absolution is a basic human trait. It reminds us of our fallen nature. It's our conscience speaking to us. There would, of course, been other ways to seek absolution and forgiveness, but it would require personal responsibility (hard) instead of changing the world (easy).

“I remember distinctly an image of--we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at his pant leg and his perfectly creased pant,” Brooks says, “and I’m thinking, a) he’s going to be president and b) he’ll be a very good president.” ~2009

Probably due to the fact the Xers had more direct experience of the contradictions and hypocrisies involved.

Yes, when we were growing up, SJWism wasn't so dominant. It was easier to see the cracks in it. We had pre-Boomer grandparents who didn't speak it. There were still some TV shows that didn't preach it. Left-leaning people were latching on to different SJW causes, but they weren't acting in lockstep yet. Someone might become a radical environmentalist without being on board with gays and every other SJW cause.

By the time Millennials were growing up, SJWism was much more slickly packaged and ubiquitous. It was inserted into every TV show. We got it in Social Studies class; they got it in Math, English, etc. Their grandparents were the Boomers who created it. They breathed it everywhere they went.

Many of us went SJW because it was new, but at least we were aware there was another way to think. Millennials never knew anything else. That's not an excuse, just recognition that even when Millennials see the flaws in SJWism and seek to reject it, it will be harder for them because it so permeates their thinking.

Leave it to a jew to harrass us with holocaust denial ("That’s why we don’t tolerate Holocaust denial..."). Does it always have to be about them? I mean it almost reads like he just came up with this excuse of a column to fill his quota of holocaust nostalgia.

Millennials were raised on Boomers' tales of great moral crusades but nowadays, all the good ones are taken. Slavery, votes for women, labor laws, Nazis, civil rights, poverty programs, anti-war protests, clean air and water . . . what terrible problem remains? What noble endeavor is needed to solve it? How can they prove their moral superiority over their benighted ancestors? Gay marriage? Campus rape? Black Thugs Lives Matter? No wonder they're frustrated and confused. They've been told their worth depends on being agents for social change but any change they make to America would be for the worse.

"In his autobiography, Silent Gesture, Tommie Smith stated that the gesture was not a "Black Power" salute, but a "human rights salute". The event is regarded as one of the most overtly political statements in the history of the modern Olympic Games.

SJW is end-game. It's been a long time coming, but it's hit critical mass, and must now be dealt with head on.

"Settled philosophies are meant to (but obviously don’t always) instill a limiting sense of humility,".............Riiiiiight. Every SJW I've had the displeasure of tangling with most certainly missed that part of the playbook. Humility wasn't a concept they were remotely familiar with.

Millennials never knew anything else. That's not an excuse, just recognition that even when Millennials see the flaws in SJWism and seek to reject it, it will be harder for them because it so permeates their thinking.

Most of your "moderate" SJW-types, not the hardcore, rainbow haired, and largely insane tumblr crowd, but your average Millennial, left-leaning college student whose activism is mostly confined to facebooking Ta Nehisi Coates articles genuinely has no idea that there is any other rational worldview out there. Teaching pre-modern philosophy in a required freshman course let's you see this first hand over and over again. The number of students who literally have no idea that there are intelligent people who are not relativists, or that religious faith is not simply blind, irrational prejudice is staggering.

Watching (at least some of) them awaken from their dogmatic slumber is by far the most rewarding part of my job.

SJWs have no right to police or even insert themselves into very much due to the matter of the outcome; dysfunctions, distractions, delusions. They are weak small souls in weak vessels (as seeing my own personal fragility) but they muddy and destroy logic and reason. Liars tend to ruin everything*

Even VD at a young age was probably a bit less cynical and more optomistic/idealistic than he currently is today...

A significant point here is "intentions" make a difference, not necessarily in the outcome but it should at least in how you view the participants... young people are idealistic and looking to improve the world which is in itself not a bad thing - kindness, compassion are things that we as christians can get behind without too much reservation. As christians we can agree that we should help others as well.. so the area of argument is really how to best help people.

The problem is the liberal approach of the last 40 years doesnt seem to be working ..often what is missing from the liberal approach are measurable parameters and indications of programs have the desired effects .. you want dynamic processes that are measured and adjusted as needed...

Social liberals have this tendency to lead more with the heart, less with the head.. the intentions are perhaps noble but the methods have be proven ineffective and in many cases detrimental...

I am sure VD does not see things as black and white as he currently claims ... :) he is too smart for that.

"If they use words like bravery, courage, & celebrate, you know they're SJWs and can be safely ignored"

Then you will be ignoring almost everyone, Difster. The fawning over Jenner has been near universal. The people showing real courage and bravery are those trying to resist the Jenner narrative. But good luck finding them. Most have been silenced.

A significant point here is "intentions" make a difference, not necessarily in the outcome but it should at least in how you view the participants... young people are idealistic and looking to improve the world which is in itself not a bad thing - kindness, compassion are things that we as christians can get behind without too much reservation. As christians we can agree that we should help others as well.. so the area of argument is really how to best help people.

In terms of political opinion, X-ers grew up with newspapers and network TV talk shows that had 3 liberals and one token conservative -- so the conservative side got some play everywhere. Millennials grew up with cable TV news that was entirely leftist (conservatives ended up on Fox which they never watched), and sites like Twitter -- if you checked Twitter during the last election and weren't logged in to an account that followed a bunch of right-wingers, it looked like Obama was going to win against nobody with about 99% of the vote.

When I was in grade school, a couple of the public school teachers still had paddles on the wall. At Catholic school, some nuns still wore a full habit and even the liberal nuns wore a simple veil. Things changed drastically over the next couple decades with the left consolidating its cultural dominance.

Millennials didn't create SJWism; Brooks is an idiot. It just took two generations for SJWs to infiltrate and control all the institutions.

I, too, am dubious. My opinion is that more millennials were naive and idealistic enough to buy the Baby Boomer nonsense that most of the more skeptical Generation Xers rejected.-VD

From what I see, the "early" baby boomers had a lot of the genx'rs. The late baby boomers (me) raised the millenials. So their philosophy can be directed towards them. I remember some of the very crap this country is politically fighting being talked about when I was in high school. I just ignored it because I really did not care how gays, lesbians and transgender people had to say. I still don't, but they have a lot more political clout these days.

So again... I and my generation are at fault for many woes in this world. The genx has more verbal bullets to shoot at me and my generation.

I think it is the age. When I was a teenager, the "greatest" generation blamed us for all the sexual crimes happening at the time. Now the genx blame us for the weirdo's coming out of college. However I have no apology for how I raised my children. And I definitely won't apologize for having my children. Suffice to say, I am very proud of my children of who are all grown up and they support themselves.

Maybe all the baby boomer critics and haters are correct. Perhaps it is high time the baby boomers got judged, and judged harshly.

Once two co-wokers,a liberal and a conservative, were driving down interstate together and came upon a horrible crash. They pulled over and ran to the wrecked cars to see if they could help. Laying beside the cars... they found a man barely alive. He had obviously broken his legs and was bleeding from all kinds of wounds.

Neither of the men who found the injured fellow had any kind of medical training at all. They had no idea what to do.

The liberal man shouted "We have to DO something!" And starts stomping on the injured man. He kicks the man brutally in the head until the conservative tackles him and holds him down.

When the ambulance finally arrives and the EMTs take over... the liberal immediately starts shouting again "I was doing everything I could to help him but this asshole tackled me and held me down and wouldn't let me help!"

"From what I see, the "early" baby boomers had a lot of the genx'rs. The late baby boomers (me) raised the millenials"

I wondered about this for a while... but its not true. And its an ironic conclusion. The generation you're forgetting is The Silents. They are the generation between that was to young for WW2 but came before the Boomers. They get lumped in with both of those generations... but in reality they are their own generation.

The Silents raised Gen X. Boomers raised the Millenials.

The Silents hated the Boomers. And that really tells you all you need to know.

David Brooks has been around long enough to know better. He knows these little turds have been brought up to be Reds, that the media fills them with Red notions, that the schools and colleges reward them for being Red. He spews lies and flattery for the dirt that read the New York Times. We need a New Holocaust of Freedom.

"Burn people at the stake that point out a Jewish census right before world war II showed that there was not 6 million jews in Germany, but not a good cock sucking leftist like me that says something that is inconveniently true." - David Brooks

Nate you are correct on the generations. The Millennials are overwhelmingly Boomer kids, but the very youngest Millennials if you count all of the way to the year 2000 could belong to the oldest Xers. Generations are fuzzy on the edges though and the children graduating from HS this year, grew up mostly post 9/11, post 2007 bust heading to the workforce, and seeing their older friends and siblings graduate college with high debt, worthless degrees, and no jobs.

This last Sunday our church graduated 13 and only one was going for a marginal degree, the others were all money makers or careers with high job security. The Xers are too pragmatic to let their kids waste time and money in college.

"This last Sunday our church graduated 13 and only one was going for a marginal degree, the others were all money makers or careers with high job security. The Xers are too pragmatic to let their kids waste time and money in college."

Well part of it... is college was already bullshit when we went. Everyone jabbers about the whiney Mils and their problems but the fact is Gen X faced exactly the same thing. We got fed the same bullshit lies they did. The idiot Mils just want everyone else to save them. We largely just handled the shit ourselves because we went into it expecting to get screwed in the first place.

A really good test of SJWism is how people react to Bruce "I'm not gay" Jenner."The fawning over Jenner has been near universal".

You guys missed what happened after he came out as a republican, every pot smoking leftist turned on him.http://www.gaypatriot.net/2015/04/25/so-bruce-jenner-is-a-republican-it-turns-out/http://www.gaypatriot.net/2015/04/25/the-tolerant-left-responds-to-bruce-jenners-republican-status/

Every SJW I've had the displeasure of tangling with most certainly missed that part of the playbook.

You must be tangling with them the wrong way. “I was looking at his pant leg...,” Brooks says, “and I’m thinking, a) he’s going to be ... very good.” ~2009

France sends gay representative to pope, at least they didn't send him to Benghazi http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/06/02/world/europe/ap-eu-france-vatican-ambassador-.html?_r=0

Nate, the parental advice was different even if college was mostly the same. The Boomers told their kids, "just do what you love and you'll make money at it." So we end up with people getting master degrees in puppetry. The Silents either said nothing, or didn't encourage stupidity.

As for SJWs they have always existed, but in the US the cultural Christianity did act as a restraint, now that cultural Christianity is dead (good riddance) they have no restraint and their actions are an utterly predictable will to power, combined with words make reality.

A friend sent me a forwarded e-mail praising the "godly" president Lincoln this last week. I responded with my disapproval and a few of Lincoln's wrongs, plus linked his crushing of the South to the following imperial presidencies and big government.

The sender, a conservative, utterly flipped out and starting insulting me. He's an alpha type and thinks I'm pompous and disrespecting of my betters.

(As a side: how is it that I always manage to piss off the alphas? Just because I disagree with their assertions? This keeps happening to me.)

The SJW insanity we're experiencing these days is merely a flavor of the same bullshit the young boomers were pushing in the 60's. Nothing has changed, all the markers are there: the arrogance, the ignorance, the cowardice, the self-regard, the entitlement, the non-stop selfishness - all swaddled in lies and deceit.

Even as a young child in the late 60's watching this "movement" play out I sensed it was lunacy.

As a slightly older child (about 10) in the early 70's during the embracing of abortion - I knew it was evil.

Boomers and their ideological descendants continue to propagate this very same evil today.

At the heart of the problem is confusion over the nature of the transgendered. "Sex change" is biologically impossible. People who undergo sex-reassignment surgery do not change from men to women or vice versa. Rather, they become feminized men or masculinized women. Claiming that this is civil-rights matter and encouraging surgical intervention is in reality to collaborate with and promote a mental disorder.

You guys missed what happened after he came out as a republican, every pot smoking leftist turned on him.

Turned on him, or chided him for a bit before going back to lauding him? I don't really know, because I keep looking away every time I see his face plastered somewhere. But it's still being plastered, so it doesn't appear that he's been kicked out. Maybe they won't ever trust him, but he's still useful to them.

I suppose so, Nate; however, you're rather more tolerant of dissenters than most.

Probably because you're secure enough in your position that you couldn't care less if someone disagrees.

I don't know why people have such a hard time with observable truth. I'll present a few facts to a person, dispassionately, and then am rewarded with a nuclear explosion. This particular individual called Hitler and Mussolini "my boys" because I called Lincoln an imperial president who ignored the Constitution. Doesn't even follow.

Like pointing out that blacks are vastly more disproportionally arrested in San Francisco than Ferguson, they will pretend to totally forget reality afterwards but never bring a microphone over to you even if you have a rainbow feather boa on. Actually does anyone here know of a good way of dealing with the SJW way of answering public questions by having questions written down on cards & they only use the questions they want, or make up their own, before saying they are out of time?

Nate June 03, 2015 9:09 AM: "The Silents raised Gen X. Boomers raised the Millenials. The Silents hated the Boomers. And that really tells you all you need to know."

My folks were Silents, born in '30s, childhood memories of WWII--and they both loathed, despised, and had much contempt for decadence of navel-gazing Boomers.

Once upon a time Goethe's phrase "Die Tat ist Alles, nichts der Ruhm" (the deed is everything, its splendor nothing) was revered among American academia. Now it's all intent, optics, appearance, feelz, Right Thinking Will Be Rewarded Comrade, with moar cowbell and jazz hands.

On tangent with this topic: this recurring call to "change the world" seems to be frequent attempt at post-modern secular implementation of "Tikkun Olam". Change the world, by hook or by crook, with accountability only ourselves as god. I've wondered how much this permeating worldview has adversely affected Christendom, and how consistent it even is with the Christian worldview.

We have every right to attempt to police. Don't like our approach, our perspective, our commitment? Who cares! You and your approval of sexist patriarchy and your diligent attempt to impose some an ancient and unjustified morality on the world is a losing effort that we will continue to beat down at every opportunity until the last of you pogrom-instigators are tucked away in the dustbin of history.

3. Given his focus and determination there is the remotest possibility that this is the ultimate Black Knighting. And the perfect revenge of against Kris Kardashian. No getting around it, her ex-husband is a better looking woman than she is.

(*And for God sake don't eat your Wheaties, I mean who knew about the side effects right?*)

“In a deep irony, it’s the demand of female listeners who aren’t thinking about it. They’re just responding to that flow of song after song, and if that mix has more females in it, they turn off quicker,” explained Hill.

"And that's why we're introducing this new bill to the Congress, which will make it illegal in all 50 states to make a public statement which denies, trivializes, or otherwise historically undermines the German extermination of no fewer than six million Jews."

Freedom of Religion won't be the only thing re-interpreted in (excised from) the First Amendment.

"You and your approval of sexist patriarchy and your diligent attempt to impose some an ancient and unjustified morality on the world is a losing effort that we will continue to beat down at every opportunity until the last of you pogrom-instigators are tucked away in the dustbin of history."

Oh look... a window licker entirely ignorant of history is attempting to play the history card.

how novel...

Look idiot... none of your idiotic arguments are new. None of these contraversies are new. They were dealt with in the ancient world and they are still being dealt with today. They are not over. They never will be over. 300 years from now some idiot 20 something is going to be shouting this same stupid sentiment. And he'll be no more stupid than you are.

Oh, David Brooks is such a toadie. He really is at best a midwit who has made a career of sucking up to little minitrends. No surprise that having discovered the SJW's he'd suck up to them; if nothing else, he doesn't need a media tantrum from them.

But you know, I don't believe that the majority of Millennials are SJW's. The majority of Chinese during the Cultural Revo probably weren't all that devout Communists, either.

The loudest mouths with the most time on their hands are clearly SJW's, and a lot of other people just don't have the time or inclination to push back at them, so they go along just enough to avoid trouble. This is surely not a new thing in history. There's some fraying around the edges, and I think that the SJW's will wear out their welcome in the next few years.

Now, I will blame the idiots; Boomers, Silents, X'rs, whoever; that came up with the whole Self Esteem movement back in the 90's. Teaching children from pre-K on crap like "I Am Special, Look At Me" surely has not done anyone any favors at all, and a direct line can be drwan from that debacle to the modern SJW special snowflakes. The amount of damage that has been done both to individuals and to cohorts of people can't be understated, though. "Self esteem" was a classic post-hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy that never should have made it out of the graduate education school seminar, and it says something about the lower IQ people who infest colleges of education.

I'm heartened nowadays to hear some high school students and college people using the term "Special Snowflake" in a derogatory, sarcastic manner. It's a start.

We have every right to attempt to police. Don't like our approach, our perspective, our commitment? Who cares! You and your approval of sexist patriarchy and your diligent attempt to impose some an ancient and unjustified morality on the world is a losing effort that we will continue to beat down at every opportunity until the last of you pogrom-instigators are tucked away in the dustbin of history.

Tough talk from a class of people demanding "safe spaces" away from thoughts and ideas you're too stupid to process.Sorry, yours is not the generation of the molotov cocktail and Taking It To The Streets.Your's is the generation of the Fainting Couch, and that's just the tip of the ice berg in the nearly innumerable ways in which You Losers are basically Victorians without the fashion sense.

The Armenians, Greeks, and Kurds, on the other hand, are shit out of luck. Their history is bad for business, so...

The Ukranians are also in a tough spot, because while we will (belatedly) recognize that the Holodomor happened, HuffPo will be quick to point out that fighting against their murderers meant being a co-belligerent with Germany, and everyone knows the Ukranians should have prioritized someone else's population reduction over their own, the bastards!

And of course, the plan to demographically wipe out the west continues apace, and in that case we won't tolerate the act of stopping the coming bloodbath.

"I don't know why people have such a hard time with observable truth. I'll present a few facts to a person, dispassionately, and then am rewarded with a nuclear explosion. This particular individual called Hitler and Mussolini "my boys" because I called Lincoln an imperial president who ignored the Constitution. Doesn't even follow."

Emotion. Its pure emotion mixed with insecure Alpha bluster. And yes.. alphas can be insecure. At least that's how I've always seen their control freak tendencies.

anyway people have emotional connections to some "facts". Combine that with a binary world view and the whole thing makes more sense. Lincoln = America = Freedom = GOOD. Hitler = Not Freedom = Bad. Therefore if you criticize Lincoln... you are Bad. And Bad = Hitler.

"whoever; that came up with the whole Self Esteem movement back in the 90's. Teaching children from pre-K on crap like "I Am Special, Look At Me" surely has not done anyone any favors at all, and a direct line can be drwan from that debacle to the modern SJW special snowflakes. "

Boomers. Remember we're talking 90s here. X was just starting to trickle into the real work force. Only the oldest members of X had real jobs and none of them had real power yet.

But you know, I don't believe that the majority of Millennials are SJW's. The majority of Chinese during the Cultural Revo probably weren't all that devout Communists, either.

You shifted the bar by putting "devout" in the second sentence. No, most Millennials are not "devout" SJWs. But they're SJW supporters by default, because it's all they know. It's just a given for them that homosexuality is normal, that "gender" is malleable, that men and women are equal, that "change" is good, that snark is a substitute for analysis, etc.

They can learn the truth, but they have to encounter it first, which they won't through the schools, news media, government, churches (if they attend), or entertainment. Apparently even their video games have been SJW-ized, so there are few places left where they might stumble over a clue.

The Boomers told their kids, "just do what you love and you'll make money at it.

Sure, because that's what worked for them. Just as "get a journeyman certificate and join the union" worked for a previous generation. People always give advice to younger people based on "what worked when I was your age", ignoring the fact that the world changes.

I tell students to build up a set of skills they are good at, that most people can't or won't do. Maybe that means being a plumber or an HVAC contractor, maybe it means being a physical therapist or a speech pathologist, maybe it means running two or three small businesses, maybe it means working for a megacorp long enough to get established as a code wrangler.

But the whole "any degree makes you employable" approach has been dying for years, and it's clearly dead now. Except in the minds of some of the more foolish, doddering Boomers, of course.

anyway people have emotional connections to some "facts". Combine that with a binary world view and the whole thing makes more sense. Lincoln = America = Freedom = GOOD. Hitler = Not Freedom = Bad. Therefore if you criticize Lincoln... you are Bad. And Bad = Hitler.

...I, for one, will not stand here and listen to you bad-mouth the United States of America. Who's with me? [marches out]

And for God sake don't eat your Wheaties, I mean who knew about the side effects right?I wonder if Wheaties can get their money back? It would be interesting to see the fine print in the contract.P.S. Gramsci won.

"Boomers. Remember we're talking 90s here. X was just starting to trickle into the real work force. Only the oldest members of X had real jobs and none of them had real power yet."

The saving grace in all of this is that, despite their idiotic brainwashing by the Boomers, Millennials very much like Xers. According to Strauss and Howe, the guys behind Fourth Turning, the closest bond between generations is usually with the Civic-types (Mill) and Reactive-types (X), and both generations are extremely close, even by historical standards. My guess is it has to do with the collective suffering both generations have experienced as a result of the Boomer ruination of the culture (which was instigated by GI-era communist professors) Xers grew up seeing it, Millennials grew up being taught it.

Nate, I was told discretely in 1992 about a job opening "I can't hire you because you are the wrong gender and the wrong race." It did turn out for the best, sort of like being turned down by NSA in '80s for having visited USSR. But I said then (and today) "What difference is there in saying that to a black female in 1952 vs. a white male in 1992?" Response: [crickets]. That was my entree into what is rampant today.I tell my kids and brothers' kids don't go deep into debt to get a useless degree for a non-existent job. Just like our folks had to swim against the tide of FDR-worship and imperial progressivist statism, I suppose nowadays the GenX parents have to do much the same.

Desiderius -- .. feel free to say something useful and I might listen to you (although based on my first impressions not likely).

Nate - I dont think you really believe me to be wrong ... I understand the partisan rhetoric behind the position of dont give an inch etc -- I am right there with you .. but in the end you have to make sure you dont believe your own rhetoric ...

Peter G says -- "That's completely wrong. As Christians, there is _no_ argument about the how. We have had the greatest teacher of them all and the Truth is known"

You seem like a good god fearing man so I will cut you some slack but you have said little that I can use to understand what your position is. There are certainly differences between how a Unitarian vs post vatican II RCC vs a SSPX traditionalist or a Protestant capitalist might decide its best to solve a particular social problem.

Peter G says "We were also taught that intentations can't be known and if someone be judged, it is their deeds that can and should be judged"

I would worry about your soul first .. that is what you will be eventually judged on. Faith and good works = intention and actions.

People always give advice to younger people based on "what worked when I was your age", ignoring the fact that the world changes.

Yep. We X-ers were told by our Silent parents: respect authority, listen to experts, and salute the flag, and everything would work out for the best. In their memories, public schools taught the basics, churches maintained traditions, men in white coats made life safer and more comfortable, soldiers and cops protected the people and their rights, and the System worked for the common good. Heck, I know some who still believe that's how ti works, despite 50 years of evidence to the contrary.

"But the whole "any degree makes you employable" approach has been dying for years, and it's clearly dead now. Except in the minds of some of the more foolish, doddering Boomers, of course."

I remember being told by every authority figure in my life as a kid (born in 89) that college was the way to a successful career and future. Constantly. The drum-beat was relentless, you heard it from everyone, including entertainment, but now that it's obvious college has become worthless you'd be hard-pressed to find those same people owning up to the lessons they taught the younger generation. Usually its "we never said that!"

"Nate - I dont think you really believe me to be wrong ... I understand the partisan rhetoric behind the position of dont give an inch etc -- I am right there with you .. but in the end you have to make sure you dont believe your own rhetoric ... "

A hallmark trait of the mid-wit.

You can't imagine someone actually disagreeing with you, unless its because they are obviously dumb.

I don't give a damn about intentions. In fact... I very much prefer that everyone on the planet do what's best for them.

if everyone did that... rather than trying to save everyone else from themeselves we'd be in great shape.

Yes. I very much do believe you are wrong. And I have mountains of dead bodies as evidence.

@BGS"Burn people at the stake that point out a Jewish census right before world war II showed that there was not 6 million jews in Germany, but not a good cock sucking leftist like me that says something that is inconveniently true." - David Brooks

That's just silly. No one suggests there were 6 million Jews in Germany. Lucy Dawidowicz's figures, displayed on Wikipedia's page on the Holocaust, have 240,000 pre-war German Jews, with 210,000 being killed. They also have 3 million Polish Jews killed out of 3.3 million, 900,000 of 1.5 million being killed in the Ukraine, and Jews of various other nations taking huge losses, adding up to 5.93 million.

Like pointing out that blacks are vastly more disproportionally arrested in San Francisco than Ferguson

Given the population numbers, I don't think it's possible for blacks to be as disproportionately arrested in Ferguson as they are in the US as a whole, or as they probably are in San Francisco, even if they constituted every single arrest in Ferguson.

But you know, I don't believe that the majority of Millennials are SJW's. The majority of Chinese during the Cultural Revo probably weren't all that devout Communists, either.

You shifted the bar by putting "devout" in the second sentence.

Yes, I suppose I did, at that. In any event, the cultural revo did in time fail due to its own excesses. I expect the same from the SJW's, and it is entirely possible that other millennials will be the fiercest at pushback in time. Because people don't like to be lied to, or lied about.

No, most Millennials are not "devout" SJWs. But they're SJW supporters by default, because it's all they know. It's just a given for them that homosexuality is normal, that "gender" is malleable, that men and women are equal, that "change" is good, that snark is a substitute for analysis, etc.

That's what the louder ones trumpet. It's pretty much the same crap that boomers and Xr's were fed, with the addition of teh ghey stuff. Some of it is just C'mon, you saying you didn't buy some stupid stuff in college yourself?

A lot of people are just going with the flow, and some others are keeping a low profile. Certainly there is a lot of groupthink among the millennials. Good thing that never happened with the X'rs or the Boomers, eh?

They can learn the truth, but they have to encounter it first, which they won't through the schools, news media, government, churches (if they attend), or entertainment. Apparently even their video games have been SJW-ized, so there are few places left where they might stumble over a clue.

Not all the churches, not all entertainment. I was pleased with Hawkeye's backstory in the latest Avengers cartoon, for example. Most people under 30 don't really "watch TV" so much as pull shows via Netflix, Hulu, etc. so they aren't necessarily being force fed the way older ones are.

Shame about the games. I have not chosen to make time for videogames or computer games for a while, so I'm out of that loop, but #gamergate suggests the SJW's have not totally taken over there, right?

And of course, there are odd corners of the web where millennials can encounter "alternative thinking", such as this one.

"I don't know why people have such a hard time with observable truth."

Men love the darkness and they cannot distinguish between the truth and the vessel which disseminates the truth. Since the truth is unassailable, they attack and try to destroy the vessel. In some instances the vessel may be trampled underfoot and even destroyed, but the truth never stays in the ground for long. In one particular case, just a mere three days.

What a privilege and honor to serve as ambassadors of truth, where we shine like stars in a universe that is growing darker as the Day approaches.

Well, maybe. My mother saved a copy of Spock's book, but frankly I have never read it beyond the first chapter.

In the 60's or 70's?

Spock's first book came out in the late 40's I'm pretty sure; the leading edge boomers like Clinton, GW Bush, etc. were the first test cases. I remember California was the first state to really push "self esteem" and that was in the 90's, even Gary Trudeau made a little fun of it in "Doonsbury".

It had to be true, because science. See, people who were skilled and accomplished and successful had higher self esteem than people who were unskilled and unsuccessful, so obviously the answer was: increase self esteem, and the rest would follow. Post hoc ergo propter hoc in action. "Tell the kids how good they are, and they'll become good" is something a school counselor actually said in my presence back in the 90's, and I was stunned into silence. I mean, how stupid is that? I always wonder about people who say stuff like that, did they forget their own childhood, or what?

I remember being told by every authority figure in my life as a kid (born in 89) that college was the way to a successful career and future.

It's still being pushed, hard. Any above average student in any high school will be pushed not just towards college, but towards an elite one such as the Ivies, Stanford, etc. The high school girls are all but ordered to march into careerism.

Meanwhile people in their mid 20's are moving back with parents because of crushing debt loads combined with the Obama boom in the economy, and often a useless degree. Probably can't get any of them to become high school guidance counselors, though.

These schools have come a long way since the days when about the only degree you could obtain at one of these "elite" schools (e.g. Yale, Princeton and Harvard) was a Divinity degree. Is there even such a thing at any of these schools any longer? We left it so long ago - in the Garden.

The drumbeat of "you must have college to get a good job" has been constant from the generation that produced the GI Bill to today. The schools, TV, and government are still pushing it in lockstep. If cracks are appearing, it's because it's gotten so expensive that many families simply can't afford it. Also, at least some X-ers know better because it did nothing for them. Most of the X-ers I know who went to college aren't using their degree, and those who are working in their degree field aren't making noticeably more than if they'd just started as interns/apprentices and worked up.

So individuals are starting to see the light, but as with homeschooling, diet, and every other topic, the dissenters are still a very small voice in the wilderness. It takes someone who's already skeptical of mainstream thinking and willing to risk badthink to seek them out.

I expect the same from the SJW's, and it is entirely possible that other millennials will be the fiercest at pushback in time.

Quite possibly. We X-ers just don't care enough to push back as hard as we should, even when we know the truth. We're more likely to do our own small-scale thing and let the rest of the world go to hell. If aware Millennials become just as angry but are also more group-oriented by nature and training, they may fight back in a more organized way.

"Meanwhile people in their mid 20's are moving back with parents because of crushing debt loads combined with the Obama boom in the economy, and often a useless degree. Probably can't get any of them to become high school guidance counselors, though."

It is a Sisyphean task trying to explain to a Boomer that the economy is different from the one they remember in the 50s and 60s. They view it through the lens of abundant jobs and a prospering economy, when for both Gen-X and the Millennials over the last 30 years its been one of steadily declining wages and rising cost of living.

@A Paradigm..."Tell the kids how good they are, and they'll become good" is something a school counselor actually said in my presence back in the 90's, and I was stunned into silence. I mean, how stupid is that? I always wonder about people who say stuff like that, did they forget their own childhood, or what?

Watching the ads during NFL games is an exercise in cognitive dissonance. All week, I read and hear from other people about how things are getting tighter, people have less spending money, jobs are harder to come by, cats and dogs are living together, etc. Then I turn on the TV and it appears that people spend most of their time and money trading their smart phones for newer ones, comparing data plans, and buying new cars and gadgets. Granted, commercials, like SJWs, always lie; but the amount being spent on those ads tells me people really are pouring a lot of money into that stuff.

I actually saw an ad last year, for a state tourism board I think, that showed a few quick clips of "bad economy" scenes, then switched to happy pictures and a narrator saying times might seem tough, but don't let it keep you from having fun. That was literally the message: You might think things are bad, but don't believe your lying eyes; just be positive and spend money and everything will come up roses!

" Some of it is just C'mon, you saying you didn't buy some stupid stuff in college yourself?"

No. I didn't. My friends didn't either. We were getting the same kum bah ya diversity shit pounded into our heads these kids deal with... we just were jaded and skeptical enough to see through it... even back then.

It is led by people who want to secure equal rights for gays, lesbians and other historically marginalized groups.

Point of order - Homosexuality has been the favored sexual perversion of powerful upper-class men in advanced societies the world over for millennia. "Historically marginalized" is not an accurate descriptor.

You seem like a good god fearing man so I will cut you some slack but you have said little that I can use to understand what your position is. There are certainly differences between how a Unitarian vs post vatican II RCC vs a SSPX traditionalist or a Protestant capitalist might decide its best to solve a particular social problem.

So when I said greatest teacher, you assumed it would be someone from the Unitarians? And the Truth coming from the RCC?

"That was literally the message: You might think things are bad, but don't believe your lying eyes; just be positive and spend money and everything will come up roses!"

That sounds like a marketing executive somewhere read that Millennials are more optimistic than Xers so making optimistic-sounding ads in the way to get their attention. Except all the jobless or underemployed Millennial men out there know it's horseshit since they either can't get jobs or can only get minimum wage ones.

But hey, we've got privilege, we'll figure it out. The real crisis is making sure women feel safe and welcome in STEM fields and that there's not too many unattractive nerds there hitting on them.

Teenage Jail 12:37 PM @BGS Like pointing out that blacks are vastly more disproportionally arrested in San Francisco than Ferguson"Given the population numbers, I don't think it's possible for blacks to be as disproportionately arrested in Ferguson as they are in the US as a whole, or as they probably are in San Francisco, even if they constituted every single arrest in Ferguson."

Disingenuous liberal, they are arrested because they commit more crimes than Asian girls. It just so happens that blacks are 5% of San Fran while they commit the majority of crimes including bashing. Blacks are 8% of SF puplic school students but 71% of public school students arrested.http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/african-american-top-the-list-of-students-arrested-at-sf-schools-but-only-make-up-8-percent-of-student-body/Content?oid=2920039

"No. I didn't. My friends didn't either. We were getting the same kum bah ya diversity shit pounded into our heads these kids deal with... we just were jaded and skeptical enough to see through it... even back then."

Xers were raised in a very casual, do what you want, hands-off way that for some bordered on neglect, while Millennials endured the helicopter-parenting "everybody's a winner" "wear your helmet" NOT MY LITTLE ANGEL era that emotionally stunted millions of them into thinking they were more important than they really were. The pushback among white male Millennials is due in large part to the influence of Xers and their utter disdain for the liberal culture that's done it's best to emasculate them.

Xers were raised in a very casual, do what you want, hands-off way that for some bordered on neglect, while Millennials endured the helicopter-parenting "everybody's a winner" "wear your helmet" NOT MY LITTLE ANGEL era that emotionally stunted millions of them into thinking they were more important than they really were.

Seems about right. My parents' general attitude was if I wasn't in jail, there wasn't too much to worry about.

@BigGaySteveDisingenuous liberal, they are arrested because they commit more crimes than Asian girls. It just so happens that blacks are 5% of San Fran while they commit the majority of crimes including bashing. Blacks are 8% of SF puplic school students but 71% of public school students arrested.

Not too surprising, though I wouldn't have expected the numbers to be quite that high*. Hence, my point that the numbers simply can't be that disproportionate in Ferguson, where blacks are 67% of the population, even if no one but blacks ever got arrested in Ferguson. It's not news to me that the numbers are disproportionate pretty much everywhere.

I don't get called "disingenuous liberal" much, so thanks for a good laugh.

*Possibly a statistical artifact from the small number of students who are arrested: 27 black, 7 Latino, 3 white, 1 Asian, in a public school population which is 38% Asian, 26% Latino, 13% white, 8% black. That leaves 15%...not known? Mixed race? Beats me; it wasn't in the article. It shows the usual Asian < white < Latino < black pattern in arrests to population, though.

Xers were raised in a very casual, do what you want, hands-off way that for some bordered on neglect

Yeah, remember latch-key kids? People fretted about it a bit, but basically it was considered part of the cost of doing business. That was before there was a daycare on every corner, and people probably figured a kid was safer alone in his own home for a couple hours than with some minimum-wage stranger anyway. Today's helicopter parents would freak at the idea.

Yep. And he was born in 1903. His famous book was published in 1946. Which shows that the decline of western civilisation began before the Boomers were even born.

Arguably the decline started with Freud. And with the undermining of Christianity in the late 19th century. And the beginnings of the fetishisation of Science as the answer to everything. And the colonisation of Hollywood by the Left in the 1930s. By the 1930s the intellectual classes were already predominantly leftist. And the pushing of the Civil Rights movement by liberals in the 50s. The rise of anti-nuclear peace activist groups (all of them communist fronts) in the 50s. The cancer was well established and growing rapidly by the time Kennedy was elected in 1960. It was the Silent Generation, and its predecessors, who began the destruction of our civilisation.

"My parents' general attitude was if I wasn't in jail, there wasn't too much to worry about."

My dad had a similar upbringing. My parents were involved, but they also let us out from dawn to dusk. I'd hate to be a kid nowadays.

"Yeah, remember latch-key kids? People fretted about it a bit, but basically it was considered part of the cost of doing business. That was before there was a daycare on every corner, and people probably figured a kid was safer alone in his own home for a couple hours than with some minimum-wage stranger anyway. Today's helicopter parents would freak at the idea."

The latch-key parenting the Xers experienced and the helicopter-parenting Millennials experienced affected both generations negatively in different way. Xers became jaded and cynical about pretty much everything, while Millennials became narcissistic and hive-minded. Of all the generations, the Silent had it the best and were probably the last good generation before it all went to hell.

"Definitely more meaningful than anything from the guys handing out participation trophies."

I always threw mine out. Congratulations for participating? It's a science fair, I didn't have a choice.

Mister Rogers told me I was special every day. Of course, I quit watching his show once I started school back in the 70's. I find nothing wrong with little kids being told they are special, but being taught that for their whole life is poison. Be judged by your fruits people. It's why blue ribbons still get awarded at county fairs.

These are actually your words, not mine,... .. I did not call you , nor believe you to be,... dumb...

I do freely advise most people not to disagree with me simply because I have the habit of being right more often than not but I don't preclude the possibility that in certain arcane subjects in dusty corners of human study that I might not be always up to date on the latest theories.. :)

Free will being as it is... one of Gods greatest gifts to mankind... you are free to believe what you wish... .

HULK ANGRY with non-SJW internet conformity...The Red Marx Hulk and the "Lacy Doily" Hulk agree...Dr. Mark Ruffalo Banner, long time committed SJW Leuf-tenant First Class agrees, "In short, you know not what you speak of. You reap the rewards of these women’s sacrifices every day of your life. When you grin with your cutsey sign about how you’re not a feminist, you ignorantly spit on the sacred struggle of the past 200 years. You bite the hand that has fed you freedom, safety, and a voice." http://markruffalo.tumblr.com/post/114661084940/my-response-to-the-i-am-not-a-feminist-internet

......"Sacred Struggle"....Sacred = to "Sanctify"....Sanctify to make "Holy" ...Feminism, an ideology that pits created human beings male & female he made them, against each other = Holy .....I thought it burned and made SJW's wince slightly when they usurped High-Church speak to make their irrational points.......Anyways, Perhaps Brooks could get a part as "Kippy Banner" the Hulk's Single Testicle step-nephew in the next Avenger's film...whose super power ability is the incredible power to make fine-hair nuanced points about how if you look very carefully in this giant stinking mega turd, under electron microscope of course...you will find a pristine split pea...Behold! isn't it marvelous!

Oh the irony. A poll done by the General Social Survey reported just last April that the Millennials are just as prejudice as their parents and grandparents. Oh they may have been better by one or two percentage points in some areas. In reality, they aren't a tad bid less racist. They might be better at policing their words. I guess what we managed to teach them is hypocrisy. How rich.

Most SJWs are more like the modern caricatured view of what the Puritans were like than the actual Puritans were. And they are so addicted to self-righteousness, they would find new crusades to launch if all of their pet peeves were magically eliminated.